Tag Archives: Raekwon

The age old question “Where my Killer tape at?” was asked on the Wu-Tang Clans debut album Enter The 36 Chambers. The world wants to know Method Man? Why don’t you got Rae’s shit when he let you hold it? Sure Shameek from 212 got busted in his head 2 times and believe me we mourned the loss… We’re getting those dudes who came through in the blank Land and busted crazy shots the fuck off, but the real tragedy is, where is that Killer tape. Sure Method Man could buy him 4 more Killer tapes but honestly if he could, he wouldn’t have borrowed it from Raekwon. People did come through with 40z and blunts, but we’ve all been there haven’t we? But the Killer tape in 1992/1993 was sacred. If you aren’t familiar with The Killer, then I’m sorry, you’re missing out on one of the greatest movies of all time. It came out in 1989 and was directed by John Woo (Face Off/Hard Boiled) it’s a crime/gangster drama with the best gun fights ever. If you haven’t seen it, take the steps the below and do it as soon as possible.
In the day that we live in something like The Killer is accessible as a quick Youtube, Netflix or Google search and you can literally be watching it in moments. In 1993 something like The Killer wasn’t easy to come by. You probably had to search high and low for it, find a good video store, or a kung fu shop like how I got it in the 90’s. I’m assuming when the Wu-Tang Clan saw this flick, specifically Raekwon, he was blown away by the cinematic masterpiece that it is. Why else would he be so pissed about losing the video “First of all, where my… where the fuck is my tape at?” Is it because it was rare back then? I’m thinking so, Method Man was seriously talking out his ass about buying him 4 more Killer tapes. For shame Meth… Did he ever give that tape back to Raekwon? Did he buy him 4 more Killer tapes? When someone is kind of enough to let you borrow something as incredible as The Killer Tape, you best have that shit when someone lets you hold it, if people come through with 40z and blunts remember, that got nothing to with my shit.
Did The Chef get retribution? Is that why they battled on the Method Man album? Rae “attacked the boards like chess moves” and slayed that shit. When Rae dropped his classic album Only Built 4 Cuban Linx in Summer 95, The RZA sampled the film heavy and lines and background instrumentals can be heard throughout the album. In the first track (Striving for Perfection) you distinctly hear the score of the film in the background while Rae and Ghost are discussing migrating out of New York and moving on to bigger and better things. Again, track 5 (Incarcerated Scarfaces) we hear “Dumbo” he talks about “Mickey Mouse” how he looks heroic, compassionate even though he’s a cold blooded killer. On the same track you can also here Mickey Mouse and the other assassin discussing how you can’t trust anyone in this profession, I guess the same can be said about the rap game. On the very next track (Rainy Dayz) “She sings for him and he isn’t here”. Track 14 we hear the Assassin and Mickey Mouse discussing how he wants Chow Yun Phat to take out Tony Wang who works for a drug ring in Central America. The RZA has said that he got a blessing from John Woo to sample the films and that he loved what the RZA did. This actually stemmed into a friendship and Ghost an RZA have had dinner at John Woo’s house many times.
So it’s pretty well established at how much that Killer tape meant to Raekwon. Did RZA sample the tape in question was RZA one of the dudes who came through with 40z and blunts stole the tape and later sampled it behind Raekwon’s back knowing it was a favorite movie of his? Probably not, but its a nice thought, isn’t it? The questioned is still unanswered and we don’t know if the tape was stolen from Method Man when heads came through, perhaps he watched it and saw how great it was and kept that shit. I wouldn’t blame him if he did, after all he’ll put ya nuts on a dresser and bang them shits with a spiked bat like BLAAAAW.

I was requested to start video blogging, I’ll be doing retrospective, verses and album reviews and anything else I can manage to get in. This will act as a companion piece to The HipHopHeads Podcast. In my opinion the best 2 Wu-Tang releases since Supreme Clientele have been OB4CL2 and CZARFACE. In This video I debate with myself on which was the better release? Which do you think was better?

Ghostface is following up his lackluster 12 reasons to die with a 2nd installment. While I wasn’t a huge fan of 12 reasons to die I did enjoy the Apollo Brown version waay more. Ghostface is always solid on the rhymes so I’ll be checking.